We haven't seen much of the new Movie Maniacs in the States yet - they are
just starting to hit a few stores now. So one of my readers from the
U.K. decided to help out with a terrific guest review of the new T-800 -
enjoy!

Hey there! For my first ever review, I've decided to lay judgement upon
my first ever McFarlane figure, the T-800 endoskeleton from the Movie
Maniacs line. The 5th series should be hitting shops in the next couple of
weeks and includes T-800 and Sarah Connor (in both long hair and cap-wearing
variations) from Terminator 2, Jason Voorhees from Jason X, Djinn from
Wishmaster, Lord of Darkness from Legend and the Tooth Fairy (who also has 2
variations - open and closed mouth) from the film of the same name.

Packaging - **
You can see the figure well enough, and it'll stand up to a fair amount of
shelf wear, so I guess it does its job well enough. But the artwork isn't
terribly exciting, and there's no information about either the figure or the
film that its from. You'll have to destroy the packaging to get the figure
out, although once you see how many twist ties there are you may wish that
you hadn't bothered! 5 ties hold the figure in, 1 holds the stand and 1
holds an accessory (more on that later). It hasn't taken me this long to get
into a package since the last Simpsons playsets...

Sculpting - ***1/2
Wow. Just amazing. This is the figure I've been waiting for since the first
T2 figures came out almost a decade ago. Every single detail is reproduced,
down to the tubes coming out of the shoulders. The arms, torso and legs have
pistons that actually work! This is about as perfect as they come, apart
from one thing: the feet are far too long. They're about twice as big as
they should be, although I'm guessing that's due to the fact that if the
feet were the right size the figure would never stand up.

Paint - ***
Not a whole lot of paintwork, but what there is is great. The figure and gun
are silver with a black wash that highlights the details and gives the
figure a "grungy" look. The eyes are red, but the real surprise is
the teeth, which are a yellowy-white. This is the first Terminator figure
(to the best of my knowledge) that has this detail, and although it's hardly
noticeable, it really adds a lot.

Accessories - *1/2
T-800 comes with a gun, pile of skulls and a stand that holds a replica of
the original film poster. There's not a whole lot that could have been
included with this figure, but what is included is functional, if a little
boring. The gun is well done but a little plain, the skulls are sculpted and
painted well, but the stand is just awful. I couldn't get the 2 parts to
connect together and the mini-poster (made of a thin card and taped to the
package) tore as I tried to remove it.

Quality - **
I'd always been apprehensive about McFarlane figures in the past after
hearing about the poor quality of some of the figures. Well, I guess I was
right to be cautious. The figure felt very light and cheap, and I was rather
scared to move some of the joints for fear of breaking them. The shoulder
tubes are also very fragile, and wouldn't stand up to much handling. You
certainly couldn't play with this figure.

Articulation - ****
This could be the best articulated McFarlane figure ever! I counted 19
points: head, shoulders (they work the same as a ball-joint), bicep,
elbow, forearm, waist (limited rotation), torso, hips, knees and shins.
The joints are nice and tight, although a couple were quite 'sticky'. The
elbows, hips and waist use pistons for movement. This is possibly the
nicest touch on this figure. It really is a thing of beauty...

Value - **
I paid £11.99 (British) for this. Most figures I buy are between £8-12 so
I guess this isn't bad, although if you knock a couple of pounds off then
I'd add an extra star.

Overall - ***
This is the best T-800 figure I've ever seen. The detail is just amazing, as
is the articulations. But it's not perfect. It's too fragile, and rather
light on accessories. Still, I'm sure that it'll be the biggest seller from
this wave of Movie Maniacs, and it won't just be Terminator fans that pick
this up. This is already one of my favourite figures of the year, and if it weren't
for the Marvel Legends line this would probably end up in my top 3.

About the Reviewer -
About me: My name is Matt Beahan, also know as Discogod at the Simpsons
Collector Sector. I'm an artist, and I've been collecting action figures
for just over a year, although I've been playing with them for almost 20
years. My first action figures were from the original Star Wars line, and
not a day
goes by that I don't wish I still had them..